


Lost but Not Alone

by yuki_onna_sicarius



Category: Final Fantasy XIII
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 06:08:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12163056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuki_onna_sicarius/pseuds/yuki_onna_sicarius
Summary: After Snow and Serah die in an accident, Lightning was left to raise their son, Yves. At first it was difficult, but with the help of her friends, she finally believes she can do it. She just has to keep trying.





	Lost but Not Alone

The sound of the alarm going off was jarring, to say the least. It had been quite a while since Lightning had needed to be awoken by the tiny machine, and she bolted upright in shock when she did.

She groaned and pushed her hair from her eyes. She was due for a haircut, same as Yves, but in that moment, she pushed her long hair from her face. She wasn't in the mood to deal with it at the moment.

When she got to his room, he wasn't in his bed. Her stomach jumped into her chest as her heart stopped. That was, until she heard a soft ruffling coming from the closet. She sighed and opened the closet door, where she found Yves hiding under a pile of clothes.

"Yves," she called, dropping to her knees to pull the clothes off of him. "Come on, honey, it's time for your first day."

"I don't wanna go!" he cried out, pushing her hands away. "Can't I stay here?"

"We already talked about this," Lightning replied, "you start school this year. Don't worry, I'll be here when you get done, okay? And uncle Sazh will be there, too, to drop Dahj off, so we'll see him."

Still, Yves wasn't convinced, continuing to pile clothes on top of himself to hide. Exasperated, Lightning again pulled the clothes off of him and pulled him into her arms.

"I promise you'll have fun," she told him and removed him from the closet. He protested loudly, kicking and screaming as she put him down to dress him for class. When she tried to put a pair of socks on him, he kicked and flailed, but Lightning managed to wrestle the fabric onto his feet. Once he was fully clothed, she took him downstairs to eat some breakfast before they went off.

What she wasn't expecting was to find someone had invaded her house. The mystery person was wearing a pair of ripped up jeans and a black leather jacket. When she turned around, a familiar smirk greeted her. "How's my favorite little man?" Fang asked. Yves jumped out of Lightning's arms and ran over to Auntie Fang, who picked him up and spun him around.

"I don't wanna go to school!" Yves whined.

"Why not?" Fang asked. "That's where I met your Auntie Vanille, and we've been together ever since."

"Please don't put ideas in the child's mind," Lightning chided, walking into the kitchen. "And please don't give him any details."

"Why not? The younger the kid gets the talk, the better. My parents told me where babies come from when I was his age and I decided I'd be the best aunt, but never a mom."

"Where _do_  babies come from?" Yves asked curiously, crawling onto his chair at the table. Lightning glared over at Fang, who smiled smugly.

"Well, you put it in his head, you can tell him," she snapped and moved to make breakfast.

"Alright, little man," Fang said, sitting next to him and grabbing a pen and paper, "are you ready?" Yves nodded, so Fang proceeded to make a crude picture of a uterus. "This is called a uterus."

Lightning tuned out the impromptu "Where babies come from" conversation and made some omelettes for her little family, Fang included. When she finished and turned back to them, Yves looked like he was both fascinated and mentally scarred.

"Please tell me you didn't break my son," she whispered into Fang's ear.

"Nephew," Fang snapped back.

"Son."

Lightning heard the door open and close and they were soon greeted by Hope and Vanille. It was still strange for Lightning to see Hope as an adult, even though he was still a fresh-faced adult, he was an adult no less. He walked over to Yves and handed him a backpack decorated with Chocobos. Yves wrapped his arms around Hope and whined to him about how he didn't want to go to school, the same speech he was giving everyone, and just like everyone else, Hope wasn't relenting.

"Hey, if you go to school and promise to be good, I'll buy you ice cream after class, okay?" Hope bribed. Lightning opened her mouth to protest, but held her tongue. It _had_ been a long time since she'd taken the boy to get a treat, so if it helped get him to class, she would gladly let Hope buy it for him. It wasn't coming out of her paycheck, after all.

"Are we ready to go?" Lightning asked her family. Fang took the last bite of her breakfast and Yves swallowed one more bite before jumping off his chair. Hope helped him put his backpack on and took his hand, leading the way to the car. On the way, Yves took his mother's hand.

Hope lifted Yves into the car and kissed his forehead when he had him strapped into his seat. "Everything will be fine," he promised. "You'll make lots of friends today." Yves nodded, though he looked skeptical. "Want me to sit back here with you?"

"Yes, please."

Hope chuckled and crawled into the other seat and talked in a hushed tone with Yves, who told him how scared he was. Lightning looked at them in the rear view mirror and smiled. Hope was much better at this parenting thing than she was.

Of course, all of the progress they'd made went out the door once they actually got to the school. At first Yves was excited, but when he saw all the other people he went into his shy state. Lightning always wondered where he got such a shy side, considering neither of his parents acted that way. That was her thing.

"Don't make me go, Daddy," Yves pouted up at Hope.

"Don't you remember our deal?" Hope asked softly, his voice taking on that baby tone Lightning never managed to learn. "If you don't go to class, you don't get ice cream."

"I don't want it," Yves protested. "I want to go home!"

"Hey, hey," Hope said, crouching down so he was level with Yves, "it's okay. Mommy and I will be here to pick you up, and if anything goes wrong, you can call one of us, okay? It'll be okay."

Yves wrapped his tiny arms tightly around Hope's neck and wouldn't let go. Hope lifted Yves up, running out of time to get him to class, and walked into the school with Lightning. She had to give credit where credit was due, Yves was smart enough to know what was going on and started crying, begging not to be left in the strange building with a strange person.

"Look, Yves, there's Uncle Sazh and Dajh," Lightning pointed out. Yves' head snapped around and rushed over to them when he spotted them. He wrapped his arms around Sazh's legs and cried out, but Dajh, bless the boy's soul, took Yves' hand and led him to his classroom.

"That solves that problem," Hope commented and walked into the classroom. The teacher walked up to them to greet them.

"Hello," she greeted. "I'm Ms. Lebreau. I take it you're Yves' parents."

"In a sense, yes," Lightning replied.

"Technically, no," Hope added. Lebreau tilted her head in confusion, so Lightning explained.

"He's my sister's son, but she and her husband died when he was young. Being the closest living relative, I adopted him and have been raising him."

"I've been helping," Hope added, "It's why he calls my Daddy. We're the only parents he knows."

"I see," Lebreau said and nodded, smiling at them comfortingly. "Well, class starts in a few minutes. I'll let you say goodbye to your son. The first day is always the hardest."

Lightning and Hope nodded and walked over to Yves to say their goodbyes. Just when they think he's finally settled and feeling alright, he ran up to them as they were leaving with Dajh. Lebreau walked up to him and took his hand, asking if he wanted to go draw with her and the other children. Begrudgingly, he nodded and walked away with her.

When they were in the car, Hope and Lightning let out a sigh. "That actually went much smoother than I was expecting," Lightning admitted. "It was because you're here, though."

"Don't sell yourself short," Hope replied, "you would have handled it fine without me."

"Hope, you know I love you, you're family to me, but don't lie to me."

There was a moment of silence, and then Hope let out a loud, drawn out sigh. "Okay, so maybe you need me."

"I love that boy, but if it wasn't for you, I would've lost my sanity."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere."

They shared a smile and drove off.

\---

"How was your day?" Lightning asked when she and Hope picked Yves up from school. He had rushed up to them when they entered the classroom.

"It was fun!" Yves exclaimed, jumping into his mother's arms. "I drawed you a picture!" He held up a piece of paper with three people drawn on it. "It's you and me and Daddy."

"It's lovely," Lightning said.

"It was hard to draw mine and Daddy's hair," Yves explained, "I used yellow because the paper is white, and your hair is darker pink because we don't have one lighter."

"And that's okay," Hope replied. "It's artistic."

"Are you ready for Daddy to buy you ice cream?" Lightning asked, looking over and smirking at Hope when he glared lightly at her. Yves cheered and nodded.

"Before dinner?" Hope asked.

"It's his first day and he got through it, I think we should celebrate," Lightning replied, putting Yves down on the ground. He took her hand and held out the other to Hope, who took it and they walked out together.

Once they got to the ice cream parlor, Hope had a large smile on his lips. Lighting raised a suspicious eyebrow at him, but didn't ask any questions. If there was anything she'd learned about Hope, it was that when he had a secret, he would keep it.

"I've got a surprise inside for you," he told Yves as he helped him out of the car.

"What is it?" Yves asked.

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise," Hope replied with a laugh and led him inside. He looked back at Lightning, who had trailed behind them, a little uncomfortable with the idea of a surprise. "Come on," he said and grabbed her hand, pulling her inside.

"Surprise!" the rest of their makeshift family cheered when they entered. Fang was still in her cut up jeans, blue tank-top, and black leather jacket, her dark hair thrown haphazardly over her shoulder. Vanille had changed into a pink top and black skirt, her salmon hair in hair in two ponytails. Even Sazh and Dajh somehow managed to arrive before them. A large sign was hung above a couple booths that said "Happy First Day of School!" and some balloons were on the table. Yves jumped in excitement and ran up to them, hugging them all as best he could.

"Come on, sweetie, let's pick your ice cream," Vanille said, leading him over to the ice cream. Yves looked at all the flavors in awe, unable to decide. Lightning walked over to Sazh and watched.

"Never thought you'd be here, did you?" he asked her.

"No," she replied. "Then again, I wasn't supposed to be. If Snow and Serah hadn't died, I'd still just be his aunt."

"True, but you're here now."

"I know." She let out a soft sigh. "Sometimes I think he deserves better than me. I have no clue what I'm doing. Hell, Fang and Vanille would be better parents to me, and they come and go as they please."

"Light," Sazh said before she could continue, putting a hand on her shoulder, "you've done well with him. He doesn't remember Snow and Serah, just you. And Hope. I've never heard him say anything bad about you, and from what I've seen, you give him so much love. Every parent does things differently. He's happy, he's well taken care of, and you should be proud."

She smiled a little at him and nodded. She knew he was right, but that didn't stop all of the doubt in her mind. She didn't think she'd ever think of herself as a good mom.

But that wouldn't stop her from trying.

\---

"He's finally asleep," Hope announced, walking into the living room. Lightning was cleaning up the last remnants of disheveled life in the house. She looked up and nodded.

"Thanks for putting him down for the night," she said as she put a pillow on the couch. "Was it difficult?"

"I had to read him three stories and he wanted a forth."

Lightning looked at him apologetically and began to fold a blanket. "He must have been pretty excited about today," she commented.

"Well, it was a pretty exciting day," Hope replied, grabbing the bottom of the blanket and helping her fold it. "Just be glad I didn't bribe him again."

"Yeah, you need to stop doing that."

"I admit, ice cream was a bad idea. And my wallet is screaming at me. Did you really have to get three scoops?"

Lightning chuckled playfully and nodded. "You said you were buying. I wasn't going to pass up the chance to eat as much free ice cream as I could."

Hope sighed and let go of the blanket so Lightning could throw it over the back of the couch. Once that was done, the last thing left to do, she collapsed on the couch. Hope sat down next to her, patting her shoulder.

"Sazh told me what you said," he explained when she glared at him. "Really, you have done really well raising Yves. He loves you. And, crazy thought, you've never hit him, or yelled at him, or anything remotely abusive. That's better than most parents can say."

She nodded tiredly and leaned her head on his shoulder. He was in shock for a moment, but dropped his arm to wrap around her waist. Within moments they were both fast asleep.


End file.
